Cerebellar stroke experience, treatment, recovery - want to dialogue

Also the stroke was right cerebellar.

My cardiologist is the best. Always approached the process as eliminating the things that didn't cause the stroke, never approached it from the point of trying to find the cause. Although I was anxious not knowing the definitive cause, I know the 100 things that didn't cause it, which made me realize I am a healthy guy otherwise. It took a while, but I got to the point where I would leave each appointment excited that something else was ruled out.

The whole stroke thing made life pretty difficult for a quite a while. I had to re-learn a lot of things that were basic and it took more than a year to get to the point where I felt like I made good progress. Still making progress today, if I find something difficult, I focus on it until it becomes not as difficult any more. I am (re) building my porch, realized yesterday that I climb down the ladder starting with my right foot each time then lowering my left foot to the same stair. I started to work yesterday on right foot on a stair, left foot on the stair below that one, etc. I expect I won't have to think about that in another couple of weeks, will become 2nd nature.

Couple things that I started to realize a few months back. Although the stroke brought on a lot of challenges and a new norm, in my case, it is not terminal, just inconvenient, took me a lot of work to get some normalcy back. The other thing, I had someone that went through something a lot more serious and stressful say to me (a line from the Shawshank Redemption movie), "You can get busy living or you can get busy dying." That kind of hit home and I decided to get busy living. You never know what tomorrow holds, enjoy the day. I understand strokes affect each person differently, some have more challenges than I, that is my story though.

Hugs and Prayers for you. It sounds like you have your doctors help which would take away your stress. My doctor's are creating my stress -or maybe it is the nurses. Things seem different in office verses over phone.

Thanks for the feedback. My numbness is not severe and it seems to come and go, or I just don't notice it most of the time. I am very active and notice it more when I am moving around when wearing jeans.

To answer your question, my cardiologist thinks it may have been Afib that caused my stroke. I had a barrage of tests for the months following my stroke to rule out potential causes and they found nothing. I do have PACs from time to time, they think that may have started the whole Afib episode. I have a Linq device inserted and it hasn't picked up on anything since being implanted a couple days after my stroke. The cardiologist put me on Metoprolol and the PAC episodes are few and far between and last less than 30 seconds, so I guess that's good.

Yes, I have numb spots. Can’t remember where this minute.

Do you know what caused your stroke? I had my stroke effected right also on May 17, 2015 and don't know why. In 2017, I started having my right foot and ankle go numb or asleep and my doctor did a vein ultrasound where was found my veins want to spider had form new routes. (varicose veins) I am too young58 and can't have surgery for it because insurance says it is to look pretty so have to prove it by wearing compression socks. It helped. Now they are getting tight for me to wear and I have area around my groin that a cauterized star closer was put that hurts almost all time. Am to see dr. in two weeks about this and I am thinking I should be able to have the surgery for veins and get rid of these socks. They are a life saver for work and numbness but a pain to use.

It's been a while since I posted, just started noticing something not long ago and wanted to see if anyone else is experiencing the same. I had my Cerebellar Infarct on January 6th, 2018. I have worked through many of the challenges you go through to get back to as normal of a life as possible, pretty much have gotten to the point where I am not thinking about the effects, worrying about having another stroke, etc. I have noticed over the past month or so that my right thigh has a spot about 1 inch wide pretty much the length of my thigh that is a little numb. My right side was affected by the stroke, so I am assuming it is related. Anyone have a similar issue?

I thought I’d just give everyone a little update. Had a bout of nausea, shaking and feeling very much like some of the symptoms I experienced whilst having the stroke. It was so bad I had a night in the local hospital and consultant there started thinking’s it’s due to acid reflux. Well, I’ve had this for many years but never these symptoms so it’s getting checked out in the near future. Certainly, some acid reflux liquid when troubled has made a big improvement. My cerebellar stroke was deemed to be cryptogenic and I’ve been waiting for a PFO closure. Well, I had the procedure two weeks ago and they also found an ASD as well. Surgeon says he covered both holes with the device so I’m hopeful it’ll protect me from future blood clots. It’s an amazing op I was knocked out, left with two little puncture marks in my groin, one for the device insertion and the other for the scanning device. Ordinarily, this would have been placed down my throat but they couldn’t get it down due to what they think was acid reflux causing gullet to swell. I’m feeling good, headaches have reduced, no pain from heart whatsoever and, all in all, I’m happy that I was given the chance of having this operation. I haven’t seen a great deal written on the site about PFO closure but I think everyone with a cryptogenic stroke needs to ensure that the need for this protective device is checked out by their doctors . Anyway, that’s the latest everyone, I hope you’re all continuing to make good progress.

One thing I would like to mention. Perhaps it is the wrong board, but either the stroke or more probably the medicine regime I am on now have given my dry mouth at night. I tried various lozenges and gels some worked and some didn't, but I hated the taste of all of them. However, I started using Fisherman's Friend throat lozenges. It is not for dry mouth but it works as well if not better than the dry mouth gel. It is sugar free so it is tooth friendly. If I wake up with dry mouth at night, I just chew on one of the lozenges. This breaks it up and actually loads the teeth with it. So it gradually melts as I sleep.

So if you have dry mouth and hate the tastes of the various products for dry mouth out there, pick up a pack of Fishermans Friend. It will be with the sore throat section.

I have been doing cognitive, physical, and occupational therapy since my stroke in Oct 2018. I am still having issues with everything. The most frustrating part is intellectual. I WAS an extremely intelligent person - had a photographic memory as well as amazingly gifted in math. My husband also used to call me his walking dictionary because I could just picture the word and viola...no problems. Now I have to use spell check for everything. I screw up numbers left and right. I have big issues with processing everything. We get Hello Fresh so I have to read instructions and do what it says...I haven't gotten a meal right yet. I question if this is all due to my stroke... could my stroke have triggered something???